Successful therapy for chronic nightmares

Chronic nightmares can be treated by psychotherapy

01/07/2013

Around five percent of Germans suffer from chronic nightmares (including nightmares), which rob them of their restful sleep at night and can also lead to a significant burden in other areas of life, according to the current press release of the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. Dr. Regina Steil of the Behavioral Therapy Outpatient Department of the Goethe University „Only a few sufferers that chronic nightmares can be treated psychotherapeutically quickly and effectively.“

Psychotherapeutically, the nightmares are usually relatively promising, according to the expert, but many sufferers are not aware of this. They torture themselves night after night with the terrifying dreams, which can be a significant burden in the long run. Psychologists from the Goethe University were already able to show in a pilot study, „that the frequency of nightmares after a targeted therapy could be significantly reduced within four weeks and that this success remained stable in the following three months“, so the message of the university.

In the course of the pilot study, the therapy had not only the number of nightmares but also the „Extent of anxiety, depression, stress and tension detectable“ reduced, reports the Goethe University. Now be in the behavioral therapy outpatient department too „a large-scale treatment study (planned) to compare the efficacy of two treatment concepts“, so the university continues. Only a few therapeutic sessions are required to treat the nightmare patients. Voluntary study participants are currently being sought who are interested in participating in the treatment study.

Nightmares burden the psyche
Nightmares are generally stressful dreams, from which those affected can wake up and remember them in great detail and vividness. Often in the nightmares your own life and / or the close relative is threatened. Threats to personal security or self-esteem are not uncommon in the nightmares. Those affected often feel a great deal of fear or anxiety even after they wake up. This one goes „often associated with physical reactions such as palpitations“, reports the Goethe University. For this reason, those affected often have a strong fear of falling asleep. In addition, according to the experts, the nightmares can often also cause depressive moods and an increased sense of stress. A psychotherapeutic treatment is therefore urgently required, with the statutory health insurance recognized nightmares as an independent disease. The nightmares can also occur as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder. In such cases, the therapeutic measures in this context should also be designed for the treatment of stress disorders. (Fp)

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Picture: Gerd Altmann